Edinburgh League - Round 1

Submitted by AMcHarg on Thu, 10/15/2009 at 4:23pm.

Tiger Cubs vs Badgers Brook

Tonight we had our first League match against the junior team from Edinburgh, the Tiger Cubs. In the first match of the season the tension to get off to a good start is electric.

David McGilvary found himself in trouble fairly early on and unfortunately never recovered. His opponent, who's grade doesn't do his playing strength any justice, took full advantage and converted for the full point with the white pieces.

The rest of the boards were not to go quite so much to plan for the Tiger Cubs, who failed to convert any more wins and the evening quickly turned into a bit of a demolition derby.

Robert McCord started the game late but time was no obstacle as his opponent succumbed to a strong central attack.

David Marshall’s opponent was not to fair any better as he found himself in an endgame with a significant pawn disadvantage from which there was to be no recovery.

Robert Liddle fought hard and finally accepted a draw from his young opponent despite having actually already received the full point due to the youngster’s mobile telephone ringing.

Steven McHarg won a piece after his opponent made a mistake on move 5 and never looked back. It may have been a quick mistake but the Tiger Cub fought on like a Spartan. Despite going well beyond 60 moves the result was inevitable and as more pieces were exchanged from the board the advantage of being up a piece multiplied.

The last game to finish was my one. I had a fairly good game at one stage but one mistake and my opponent was quick to take advantage. After a deep breath and 15 minutes of thought I came up with a plan that I thought served good drawing chances. The result was a Rook+Pawn endgame and he was not able to make the extra pawn count; all even on board 1 and the night is over. (Game Below)

White	Grade	Result	Grade	Black
Andrew McHarg	1586	½ - ½	1582	Shivan Murdochy
Ben He	1288	1-0	1521	David McGilvary
Robert McCord	1364	1-0	1059	Seamus Herron
Adam Brand	975	0-1	1325	David Marshall
Steven McHarg	1064	1-0	789	Fergus Skillen
Piers Armitage	725	0-1	1087	Robert Liddle